July 1, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)
Unless you’re driving past the immense concrete columns rising along Central Valley roadways in communities like Fresno, the notion of high-speed rail coming to California can seem abstract. Out of sight, out of mind.
But as construction of the first 119 miles lumbers forward in the Central Valley, another key aspect of the mammoth, multi-decade project is gearing up in San Francisco: design work on the valley’s four stations. Structures that will need to function with intuitive ease — and symbolize the arrival of a new form of transportation in the nation’s most populous state.
Written By John King
John King is The Chronicle’s urban design critic, a post that ranges from parklets to sea level rise and the back-story of local icons. One is the subject of “Portal: San Francisco’s Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities,” John’s book being published this November by W.W. Norton. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist who joined The Chronicle in 1992, he also is an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
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